Blair Witch producer signs with Web start-up

Eveo.com, a new Web site dedicated to independent video and filmmakers, has signed to its advisory board the executive producer of last summer's hit "The Blair Witch Project," the company announced today.

Based in San Francisco, Eveo was founded in summer 1999 by amateur filmmaker Olivier Zitoun and is scheduled to launch next month.

"When I was 14, 15 years old I dreamed of becoming a filmmaker, but I soon found out it was impossible, so I forgot the dream for a while," Zitoun said. "But now with the development of broadband and digital video, budding filmmakers don't have to be one of those millions of frustrated people. Now everybody has a chance to create."

Zitoun sees his company as an incubator for independent filmmakers interested in producing two- and three-minute videos.

The advisory panel, he said, will help shape the format.

Members of the advisory board include: Blair producer Kevin Foxe; New York University new media professor Douglas Rushkoff; animator Drew Takahashi, who is best known for his MTV short animation vignettes; and Scott Zakarin, co-founder of film and television production company Creative Light Entertainment.

"The Blair Witch Project" is the kind of production Zitoun wants to encourage in others. It was cheap to produce--about $30,000--and was promoted almost entirely over the Internet. The film is a story about three fictional filmmakers who disappear into the Maryland woods while trying to investigate the legend of the Blair witch.

Foxe, who is president of Sprocket Buckaroo Productions, said in a statement that "the next 'Blair Witch Project' could very well emerge on Eveo."